It’s summer! The season of impromptu gatherings, outdoor meals and hanging with friends and family.
So let’s set the scenario – it’s a weekend day, you’re out in the yard doing some work and friends who
live a little distance away ping you to let you know they are in the area and want to stop by to say hi.
They arrive and you enjoy some refreshments on the patio and enjoy conversation. Then one of your
neighbors pops over to say hello, and the party grows and so on, right? As the afternoon continues on, you ask if anyone wants to stay for dinner. Anyone up for steaks, you ask?
The challenge with steaks for a crowd is that it’s difficult to manage a bunch of steaks on a grill – you
have to tend it the whole time which takes you out of your gathering, and individual steaks often wind up unevenly done. As usual, there’s a better way!
Luckily, you happen to have a nice sized 5 pound ribeye roast in the fridge as they were on special this week! So, normally a big rib roast is a slow-roasted special occasion thing but they are great for serving some tasty beef to a good sized crowd. It’s all in how you slice it.
Obviously, the trick is to have it on hand – we always keep one in the freezer – and believe it or not, if
you have it wrapped in plastic, you can dunk it in a cooler of cold water and it will thaw fully in just a
couple of hours. That is a great trick that works with pretty much any cut of meat or fish – just make
sure it’s well sealed up in plastic.
The way we’re going to cook this is of course on your pellet grill fired up with Griller’s Gold natural
hardwood pellets. We’re going to use a hotter version of reverse searing without the searing part – the trick here is to keep turning the meat over.
Truthfully, we’re roasting it as we would in an oven. Only our oven is outdoors, and delivers a wonderful wood-roasted flavor because of those awesome Griller’s Gold natural hardwood pellets!
So let’s do this!
Prepping the Ideal Ribeye Roast
BUY:
4-5 lb. ribeye roast – ideally, bone in, but boneless works great too. The trick is the thickness of the
meat – a roast this size will be at least 4” thick. If bone-in, get at least a 2-bone roast.
TRIM:
Trim back any fat cap and also the wedge of fat as the meat transitions to the bones – that extra
fat can cause your grill to flare up and that’s no fun. After trimming, drizzle olive oil (or other vegetable oil of your choosing) all over it and use your hands to cover it evenly.
SEASON:
Just salt. Give it a very generous sprinkling of kosher salt. If you do think you want more
seasoning on it, add pepper and perhaps some garlic powder, but really, just salt works great. If you
have time, put it on about 2 hours before you start cooking.
PREHEAT:
325F with any of your favorite Griller’s Gold pellet flavors. For this, really anything works, but
either Smokeshack or Competition Blend are probably our faves.
COOKing Your Rib Roast
The technique is simple – you put it on, and you turn it every 20 minutes until it is the right
temp in the middle – this is where having a proper instant-reading thermometer is key. The higher temp and the coating of oil will give it a nice “crust” on the outside and it will get a wonderful wood-roasted flavor on it as well. One difference here – when you do a rib roast in the oven you typically put it ribs down (if bone-in) or rib-side down if boneless. With this, cook it more like a steak and put it cut side down and turn it to the other cut side – the only time we wouldn’t do that is is if you’re doing a roast that is larger than say 3 bones.
TIMING and Temperature:
The cook time will vary with thickness, but for a 4-5 lbs 2 or 3 bone roast, you’re looking at an hour or so on the grill.
Temps:
Rare (red warm center): remove at 120F; Medium Rare (hot bright pink center) remove at 128F; Medium (hot light pink center): remove at 135F.
You’re on your own for temps above that, and whatever you do, don’t do this recipe if you want it well done please. It will dry out and be tough as leather.
REST:
As always, resting is key, and we like to rest our big cuts in a cooler so as to retain the heat. Give
it a good wrapping in 2 layers of heavy duty foil, then nestle in a small picnic cooler with a folded bath towel on top of it. That will help retain the heat and help the heat migrate throughout. Rest it for at least 10 minutes per 2 pounds of pre-cooked weight.
CARVING:
As we said in the beginning – a great way to serve a crowd with this is in the carving. Take it
out of the cooler, unwrap it carefully so you don’t lose any accumulated juices – pour those off into a
bowl to hold while you carve. Then put it on a big board and have a warm platter ready (we just stick it in the grill while the grill does the shutdown).
Your first cut is to remove the bones – put the roast bone side down and work your knife along the curve of the bones to free the roast from the bones. Then (and this sounds crazy, but hear us out!), with the bone-side down on the board, cut it into 2-inch thick slices – so a 2 bone roast will yield two big slices, a 3 bone roast will yield 3, etc.
Next you’re going to lay those big slices flat on the board and cut them in half from the middle of the
bone side to the top of the cap side, and then cut each of those pieces into ¼” slices. Arrange the meat on your platter and keep going until you’ve sliced up the whole thing!
Now you have this marvelous platter of beautifully sliced steak, all having some “crust” on the outside of the slices – and it’s bon appetite time!
SIDES AND SERVING:
We are a big fan of steakhouse side dishes – so we like to make creamed spinach,
garlic mashed potatoes (although big fans of tater tots too!) and also a big Caesar salad with this meal.
And that’s it – you’ve fed a crowd easily, you didn’t struggle with cooking a bunch of individual steaks and, you were able to still be a guest at your own gathering. A win all around!
Until next time!